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Thread ID: 105468 2009-12-03 05:00:00 USB harddrive files corrupted heni72847 (1166) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
836086 2009-12-03 05:00:00 Recently I bought an adaptor which allows me to connect my IDE hard drive to the computer via USB, it's basically a external 3.5" IDE to USB hard drive enclosure...without the case.

After moving files onto the hard drive, I realize some of the zip files I copied on would not extract due to zip files being corrupted.

I've done some tests, and it turns out every time I copy a file off the hard drive, it will be slightly corrupted. The corruption will appear at a different place every time. When examining the corrupted files with a hex editor, quite often the corruption was caused by the data being replaced with 00.

I actually managed to recover a file simply by copying it off the external hard drive 3 times, then hex compare and manually replace the bits that turned into zero with actual data.

This has never happened to me before, and I've used several external hard drive enclosures in the past without such problem. Also XP gave no errors while copying the file.

I'm not sure exactly what is happening, anyone has any clues how to fix this?
heni72847 (1166)
836087 2009-12-03 05:04:00 Youre not using Windows 7, with a mobo that has a Nvidia chipset, and there's 4 GB or more installed? Have you scanned for malware. Is Nvidia firewall installed? Speedy Gonzales (78)
836088 2009-12-03 06:00:00 No to all, I'm running xp sp3. 1Gb ram. heni72847 (1166)
836089 2009-12-03 07:27:00 Do you have other hard drives - test whether it is the USB/IDE interface or the hard drive is at fault. johnd (85)
836090 2009-12-03 07:31:00 Is it powered? bob_doe_nz (92)
836091 2009-12-03 08:52:00 I used the hard drive in my NAS before it was removed and used externally, so I was assuming the hard drive was fine. I'll test it with other hard drives as soon as I can get my hands on some.

Yes it is powered. The adaptor came with a DC power supply with a molex plug which goes directly into the hard drive.

I'm hoping it's just a bad combination of adatpor and hard drive... was hoping someone would have a magical fix~
heni72847 (1166)
836092 2009-12-03 10:15:00 I tested with a different hard drive, a 2GB Seagate Quantum Fireball :p
It worked fine, even thought it was made in the last decade/millennium...
(Didn't realize those hard drives only reads at around 3MB/s!)
However this doesn't help me with my problem...

But...lady luck was nice to me today! I suddenly thought about changing my jumper settings. After changing the IDE drive to slave, files copied fine, and the corrupted files from before can now be read properly :D

Funny how the manual the came with it specified to set the drive into master, which in my case caused the weird problem...
heni72847 (1166)
836093 2009-12-03 22:21:00 I suddenly thought about changing my jumper settings. After changing the IDE drive to slave, files copied fine, and the corrupted files from before can now be read properly :D

Funny how the manual the came with it specified to set the drive into master, which in my case caused the weird problem...

I'd be suspicious. It should be master. Jumper shouldn't have anything to do with corruption.

I'd be running the drive manufacturers diagnostic test software over the drive to be sure.
pctek (84)
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